Shoe for grain-mills



H. MELLISH.

Shoe for Grain Mills.

No- 12,959. Patented May 29, 1855,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY MELLISH, OF WALPOLE, NEW HAIVIPSHIRE.

SHOE FOR GRAIN-MILLS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,959, dated May 29, 1855.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY MELLISH, of Walpole, in the county of Cheshireand State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful mode ofconstructing a separating shoe for grain-mills to prevent substancesharder and heavier than grain from passing through it with the grain tobe ground as it passes into the mill; and I hereby declare that thefollowing is a full and exact description thereof, reference being hadto the annexed drawings and the letters of reference thereon marked.

The nature of my invention consists in arranging inside the shoe throughwhich the grain passes into the mill, a pointed or zigzag barrierbetween its discharging and receiving ends, which barrier runs from thebottom obliquely upward and backward toward its receiving end; and alsoa screen with meshes sufliciently large for the .grain to pass throughis suspended from the top of the barrier above the bottom of and acrossthe shoe, extending toward its receiving end to a partition near thesame, so as to allow the grain to pass in beyond the partition under thescreen, and up through its meshes, and over the barrier; while theheavier and larger substances are arrested by the operation of the same,and detained in the shoe.

Figure I is a perspective view of the shoe suspended over a curbcovering a run of stone with the delivering end over the eye of therunner and its receiving end under the hopper. Fig. II is a verticallongitudinal sectional view of the shoe. Fig. III is a plan view of theunder side of the shoe.

A, Fig. I, is the shoe, made open at the top, and open and tapering atits discharging end a, and is made by substantially fastening togetherthe two side pieces Z) Z) the curved end 0 and the bottom (Z. To thebottom and sides inside the shoe, between the discharging end a and itscenter is confined a pointed or zigzag barrier C its points runningobliquely backward and upward toward the center of the shoe, to a wireor other suitable screen 29, which extends from the top of the barrierto a partition 9 which divides the upper part of the shoe, the screenbeing confined to its sides by any suitable means. Through the bottom ofthe shoe beneath the barrier there should be one or more openings 2'which may be closed or opened by the sliding gate j moving the cleats 7670, for the purpose of emptying the shoe when required.

To apply the separating shoe to the pur pose for which it is designed,it should be suspended with its discharging end over the eye on thereceiving opening j and a vibratory motion given to its receiving end m,all of which may be eifected by pressing a pin n through its dischargingend into the bar 0 across the opening in the curb p, or by any othersuitable means. The opposite of receiving end m should be elevatedfifteen to twenty degrees more or less as the case may require, to causethe grain to pass upward through the screen f and over the barrier e, inwhich position it is sustained by the upright sweeps 9 there being oneunder each side and hinged to its bottom, but only one is seen in thedrawing, their lower ends being attached with each a hinged joint to thebar 1', to admit of a vibratory motion being given it by means of a beltfrom the pulley s on the mill spindle and the pulley t to operate thecrank 16 in the upper end of its shaft 41 and the sweep w communicatingfrom the crank to the shoe, to which it is attached by a staple joint m.In the bottom of the shoe at its receiving end there is a rod 2 attachedby a staple joint .2, which passes up through an eye or opening a in thebottom of the hopper, just back of the gate-way Z2 for the purpose ofagitating the grain and passing it from the hopper into the shoe.

Operation: Give the shoe a vibratory motion by passing a belt over thepulleys s and t as above described, with the gate-Way open, to let thegrain into the shoe, which will soon be filled to the screen f. Now itwill be seen that, by the agitation of the grain caused by the vibratorymotion of the shoe, substances of a greater specific gravity than thegrain would settle to the bottom and be arrested by a barrier of anyform and be prevented fromrpassing over the same, if it were not for theforce of the current of grain as it passes along; but such current doesforce along substances heavier than grain over barriers of most forms;therefore to prevent that effect, I make use of a pointed or zig zagoblique barrier between the discharging and receiving ends of the shoe,which in its lateral vibrations gives the grain when it comes in contactwith its zig zag oblique under surface, at each vibration, a side-way,downward and backward stroke, thus causing substances of a specificgravity greater than grain to sink into it, and a corresponding quantityof grain to rise in its stead; another eflect tending to the same resultis, that the pointed or zig zag oblique barrier drives the grain backfrom its walls at each vibration, so as to produce a space between themand the grain thrown back, so that in the filling up of which,substances heavier than the grain, settle farthest toward the bottom ofthe shoe. And it should be observed that it is important that thevibratory motion should be communicated to the receiving end of theshoe, for the reason, that the centrifugal force thereby communicated tothe barrier and the content-s of the shoe cause a greater space betweenthe barrier and the grain, and consequently a greater chance for heavysubstances to settle toward the bottom of the shoe. And

it will be further seen, that the grain will pass up through the meshesof the screen, while substances larger than the meshes will be preventedfrom passing through, and that by the position of the screen above thecurrent of the grain long articles that would pass through a screenbeneath, will be prevented frompassing through upward, for if the end ofa long article is pushed through upward it is immediately reared aboveits surface, and will sink endwise in the current, which will sweep itslower end downward in the shoe past the point of its passage through thescreen, and will be borne along with the current until it drops from thescreen into the shoe, and yet the grain passes over the barrier and outof the shoe,

I do not claim the invention of a vibratory shoe as such, through whichto pass grain from the hopper to the mill.

Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The separatingshoe for grain mills, as herein described having an inclined barrier 6arranged and operating below the screen f, constructed substantially inthe manner set forth.

HENRY MELLISH.

WVitnesses JAMES WM. MELLISH, CHARLES A. WHITNEY.

